Russia-Ukraine war live: Wagner fighters 'like rats into a mousetrap' in Bakhmut

Wagner mercenaries are advancing through the eastern town of Bakhmut “like rats into a mousetrap”, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces has said.

Ukrainian troops have launched renewed attacks around Bakhmut’s northern and southern flanks in recent days, leading some analysts to speculate that they may be trying to encircle Russia’s forces.

"Wagner's men went into Bakhmut like rats into a mousetrap," Oleksandr Syrskyi said.

Ukraine is now believed to have recaptured about 7.7 square miles (20 sq km) to the north and south of the city in a successful localised counter-offensive operation. But Moscow’s forces, spearheaded by the Wagner Group, have still managed to push deeper inside the city itself.

Hanna Malyar, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, said the developments in Bakhmut “should not be taken out of context” as they are not part of a broader counter-offensive planned by Kyiv.

“For example, within a few days, our troops liberated about 20 sq km from the enemy in the north and south of the suburbs of Bakhmut,” she wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“At the same time, the enemy is advancing somewhat in Bakhmut itself, completely destroying the city with artillery,” she said.

South of Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces are believed to have advanced through a wooded area south of the village of Invanivske, in the direction of Klishchiivka, a village Wagner claimed to have captured in January.

And to the north, fighting has been reported in the highlands surrounding the Berkhovskoye reservoir.

‘Advantageous tactical position’

Grey Zone, the prominent Russian military blogger associated with Wagner, last week said the positions recently established by Ukraine give them “an advantageous tactical position, which allows them to conduct reconnaissance and effectively use any type of weapons” on Russian troops in the valley below.

Western officials on Wednesday said Ukraine had managed to hold Russia's western advance along the line of the Donets-Donbas canal.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's General Staff announced Russia had lost more than 200,000 troops since the start of the war more than a year ago. Only three Nato armies – the US, Turkey and France – have more soldiers than the number of Russians killed or wounded in Ukraine.

Despite the heavy losses, Moscow has amassed more than 200,000 troops to defend more than 600 miles of front line from Kyiv's anticipated counter-offensive, according to Western estimates.

"Stalin famously noted that quantity has a quality of its own," a Western official added. "I think quality has a quality of its own, and it's particularly important with regard to the actual ability to effectively defend, also attack, and the ability to actually be coherent to react to Ukrainians moves."

03:01 PM

Today's liveblog is now closed

Thanks for following today's liveblog.

Please follow along tomorrow for all the latest updates on Ukraine.

02:56 PM

Watch: Ukrainian soldier plays abandoned piano amid explosions in Bakhmut

02:49 PM

Pictured: 3rd Tank Brigade repair armored vehicle in Kharkiv region

02:40 PM

Germany cannot play ‘active role’ in new jet coalition, says defence minister

Germany has neither the training nor the right military equipment to actively contribute to the “jet coalition” announced by Britain earlier this week, the German defence minister has said.

Speaking after a meeting with British defence secretary Ben Wallace, Boris Pistorius said: “We cannot play an active role in such an alliance, in such a coalition, because we have neither the training capacities, the competencies or the planes.”

Dutch Prime Minister met with Rishi Sunak on Tuesday and the pair said they would "work to build an international coalition" to provide Ukraine with combat air capabilities.

02:27 PM

Decision about F-16s for Ukraine 'up to the White House' says Wallace

UK defence secretary Ben Wallace has said it will be “up to the White House” as to whether F-16 fighter jets will be sent to Ukraine.

Mr Wallace made the remarks in Berlin following a meeting with his German counterpart Boris Pistorius in Berlin on Wednesday.

Despite the fighter jet “coalition” announced by Britain and then by The Netherlands this week, Mr Pistorius added: “It depends on the White House... to decide whether the F16 fighter planes can be delivered.”

02:12 PM

Cyril Ramaphosa told Zelensky he wants to come to Ukraine as part of peace missoin

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he wants to come to Ukraine as part of a "peace initiative" alongside several other African countries, a spokesman for the Ukrainian leader has said.

Mr Ramaphosa stated his intention during a telephone call with the Ukrainian leader on May 13, presidential spokesman Serhii Nykyforov confirmed to Ukrainska Pravda.

Mr Nykyforov told the news outlet: “During a telephone conversation on 13 May, President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa informed Volodymyr Zelenskyy of his intention to come to Ukraine as part of a mission from several African countries.

“The President of Ukraine welcomed this peace initiative. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is ready to meet the distinguished guests in Ukraine, listen to their proposals, talk about the Ukrainian Peace Formula and invite them to join in with its implementation."

01:59 PM

Pictured: Former Azov Battalion soldier attends art therapy in Lviv after 7 months in Russian captivity

A former member of the Ukrainian Azov battalion who fought in the siege of Mariupol has produced a series of images in an art therapy session at a psychiatric unit in Lviv, western Ukraine. The ex-soldier suffers from PTSD following seven months in a Russian prison, Anadolu Agency reported.

01:44 PM

Britain can 'enable' other countries to supply equipment to Ukraine, says Wallace

UK defence secretary Ben Wallace has said that Britain can “enable” other countries which wish to supply fighter jets and other military equipment to do so.

Responding to a question about plans to send fighter jets to Ukraine in Berlin with his German counterpart Boris Pistorius at a press conference, Mr Wallace said: “What we can, obviously contribute, is training and support, again, within limits, because we don't have F16 pilots”.

“We can do, what we've done throughout this ... which is we can enable other people who wish to," he added. "Any nation that comes to us and says we want to get tanks into Ukraine ... we will help with that process."

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that Britain wanted to help create a "jet coalition" for Ukraine, when President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Chequers in Buckinghamshire on Monday, with Mr Sunak adding that Ukrainian pilots would receive training in the UK.

01:22 PM

Hungary stalls new EU funds for Ukraine arms

Hungary is blocking the release of another 500 million euros from EU funds to cover the cost of weapons for Ukraine, Budapest and European diplomats said.

EU countries have unlocked some 5.6 billion euros in common funding to help arm Ukraine in its fight against Russia since Moscow invaded last February.

The bloc's member states recently signed off on using two billion euros for a plan aimed at getting one million artillery shells to Ukraine over the next year.

That means the bulk of the nearly eight billion euros currently allocated to the joint European Peace Facility (EPF) has already gone towards Ukraine.

Budapest - which has the closest ties in the EU to Russia - says it is opposing a new disbursement as the funds were meant to support partners around the world, not just Ukraine.

"The Hungarian government does not agree that the European Union - having other instruments at its disposal - should use the European Peace Facility exclusively for Ukraine," the Hungarian government told AFP on Tuesday.

01:09 PM

Russia says forces continue fighting in western parts of Bakhmut

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday its forces were continuing to fight to capture western parts of the town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

It also said its forces had hit a large ammunition depot in the Ukrainian city of Mykolayiv overnight.

12:53 PM

US 'proud' to join new 'register for damage' for Russia damage in Ukraine

The United States has hailed the newly created "register of damage" for Ukraine as a first step to making Russia pay for its war.

The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who was at the Council of Europe summit as an observer told media in Iceland that America was "proud" to join it and was working to drum up funds to contribute to it.

12:39 PM

Mapped: Latest MoD intelligence on war in Ukraine

12:14 PM

At least one injured in Mykolaiv strike, says governor

The city of Mykolaiv was hit by a missile strike late on Tuesday evening, causing the “partial destruction” of a shopping centre and car dealership, the governor of the Mykolaiv region Vitaly Kim has said.

In an update posted to Telegram on Wednesday morning, Mr Kim said that the blast damaged private homes and shops, and one person was injured.

Footage has been released by Ukraine’s state emergency services and shared by the Ukraine defence ministry on Twitter of crews attending to the damage in Mykolaiv, which shows fire services attending to blazes and destroyed buildings.

11:50 AM

German government looking into possibility of using Russian assets for Ukraine compensation

The German government has said it is looking into mechanisms to secure war damages which include the possibility of using Russian assets as compensation for Ukraine.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz was among those at the Council of Europe to agree to set up the register of damages, which is to record Russia’s destruction of Ukraine for future compensation, in Iceland on Tuesday.

11:28 AM

No reason given from Moscow as to freezing of embassy bank accounts, says Finland

Finland has not received an official explanation from Moscow as to why the Russian central bank has frozen the accounts of the Finnish embassy in Moscow and the consulate in St Petersburg, the country's foreign minister has said.

Pekka Haavisto told reporters that Finland had requested an explanation on May 5 after the accounts stopped working on April 27.

11:13 AM

Kremlin refuses to comment on future of grain deal

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that the decision on whether or not the Black Sea grain deal which allows safe export of Ukrainian grain will be extended "has not been announced" and it is necessary to wait until an announcement is made, state news agency TASS reported.

During a briefing on Wednesday, Mr Peskov said that the Kremlin did not think "that any kind of hypothetical discussion is appropriate" surrounding the deal, which Russia has said it would walk away from on May 18 (tomorrow) if obstacles to its own grain and agricultural exports were not removed.

10:59 AM

Pictured: Banksy work on wall of damaged building in Borodianka preserved in shockproof display

A mural by Banksy which depicts a man, reportedly resembling Vladimir Putin, being flipped during a judo match with a young boy which had been on the side of a house in Borodianka, near Kyiv, destroyed by Russian shelling has been put inside a protective structure made of shockproof glass.

The mural was seen as a metaphorical representation of Ukraine's fierce resistance to the invasion, and has since been featured on postage stamps.

Banksy has produced several artworks on buildings across Ukraine in towns among those worst affected by the war.

10:32 AM

White House calls to ask for release of US citizens Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, says Kremlin

White House officials have requested the release of detained Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan in conversations with a Kremlin official, Russia’s foreign minister has said.

In an interview with a Russian television channel, Sergei Lavrov said that White House officials “sometimes call” Yury Ushakov, a presidential aide who specialises in foreign affairs, to send “one and the same signal” demanding the release of their two citizens.

Mr Gershkovich is a Wall Street Journal reporter and was arrested in March on suspicion of spying, which both he and the newspaper deny. Mr Whelan, a former US marine, was arrested in December 2018 and was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison on spying charges, which he too denies. Washington has designated both men as “wrongfully detained”.

Mr Lavrov did not say how Mr Ushakov responded.

10:15 AM

Prime ministers of Ukraine, Iceland and The Netherlands endorse creation of register of damages

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said that the creation of the register of damages, aimed at recording the cost of damage caused by Russia during the war, is "a historic decision that will provide the impetus to establish justice".

Mr Shmyal is pictured signing a document on the creation of the register, alongside his counterparts from The Netherlands, Mark Rutte, and Iceland, Katrín Jakobsdóttir.

10:01 AM

Could the apparently failed attack on Kyiv force Russia to question its nuclear capabilities?

The missile attack on Kyiv on Monday night was described by Ukrainian authorities as “exceptional in its density”.

According to the Ministry of Defence in London, Russia launched a total of 27 missile and drone systems against Kyiv, including Kinzhal ballistic missiles, Kalibr cruise missiles, and Iranian-supplied Shahed drones.

However, perhaps more remarkable than the sheer rate of fire is Ukraine’s – and by association the West’s – ability to absorb it. Kyiv says it shot 100 per cent of the projectiles out of the sky, a claim impossible to verify at this stage.

What is clear is that most – if not all – were neutralised, severely undermining the alleged potency of Russia’s missile arsenal, Fabian Hoffman writes.

Read more from Fabian Hoffman, a missile technology expert and Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oslo, in his piece here. 

09:48 AM

Bank accounts of Finland's embassies in Russia frozen, says Finnish foreign ministry

Bank accounts of Finland’s embassies in Russia have been frozen, the Finnish foreign ministry has said.

A spokesman for the ministry told Reuters that the bank accounts for Finland’s Moscow embassy and its consulate in St Petersburg were not functioning, but declined to comment further.

The Kremlin took control of the Russian subsidiaries of Finland’s Fortum, a state-controlled utility and the country’s largest, in April. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time that the Kremlin wanted to establish a “compensation fund” to hit back against what he described as “the illegal expropriation of Russian assets abroad”.

09:37 AM

In pictures: War in Ukraine

09:10 AM

More than 200,000 Russian soldiers killed since start of the war, says Ukraine

More than 200,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine since the war began, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has claimed.

In its latest assessment of Russian battlefield losses on Wednesday, they said that approximately 200,590 Russian servicemen had been killed, with more than 3,700 Russian tanks lost and 7365 armoured personnel vehicles destroyed.

09:02 AM

Last Ukrainian ship protected by current Black Sea grain deal leaves port

The last ship left a Ukrainian port under the Black Sea grain initiative, which allows the safe passage of Ukrainian grain across the sea,  the day before Russia could walk away from the deal.

Russia has repeatedly threatened not to extend the deal, brokered by Turkey and the UN in July 2022, further unless obstacles to its own grain and fertiliser exports were removed.

The DSM Capella left the port of Chornomorsk on Wednesday carrying 30,000 tonnes of corn and was on its way to Turkey, according to data issued by the United Nations.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday: "There are still a lot of open questions regarding our part of the deal. Now a decision will have to be taken.”

08:40 AM

Latest MoD update

In its latest intelligence update, the UK Ministry of Defence has said that “the air battle over the Russia-Ukraine border has intensified”.

Ukraine’s downing of a KILLJOY air-launched ballistic missile at the beginning of May and the “apparent vulnerability” of the weapon is likely “an embarrassment for Russia”, the ministry said.

08:27 AM

Council of Europe creates 'register of damages' for costs of Russia's war on Ukraine

The Council of Europe, a rights body which spans Europe, has created a “register of damages” to record Russia’s destruction of Ukraine for future compensation.

The register is to be lodged in the Hague and aims to record the tangible costs that Russia has exacted on Ukraine since the war began.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanks the Council of Europe for creating the register, saying in his speech at the opening address of the summit: “This brings closer the creation of a full-fledged Compensation Mechanism that will show the world that aggression is not worth even thinking about.”

Leaders from the council, which included French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, emphasised that Moscow would be held accountable for the harm and destruction it has caused in the country.

President Macron wrote on Twitter: “In creating an international register of damages caused by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the Council of Europe shows the way, by the side of the victims.

“I call on all states to join and contribute.”

08:18 AM

'Ukraine's territory is big... so we need additional air defence' says Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for additional air defence systems and missiles because his country’s territory is “big”, in a speech at the opening of the fourth Council of Europe summit in Iceland.

Mr Zelensky said: “Ukraine's territory is big, and to make air defence results like last night's the rule throughout the country, we need additional air defence systems and missiles.

“We also need modern fighter jets, without which no air defence system will be perfect. And I am sure we will get there.”

08:12 AM

China tells foreign missions not to display 'politicised propaganda', reportedly directed at Ukraine flags

China has notified foreign missions in Beijing not to display “politicised propaganda” on their buildings, in a request seemingly aimed at Ukrainian flags displayed since the Russian invasion, diplomats have said.

China’s foreign ministry issued a notification, dated May 10, which read: “Do not use the building facilities' exterior walls to display politicised propaganda to avoid inciting disputes between countries.”

The notice, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, was addressed to "all embassies, and international organisations' China representative offices".

Although the notification did not specify any particular “propaganda displays”, or mention the Ukraine flag, four diplomats in Beijing told Reuters that it was clearly related to Ukraine solidarity exhibits.

One diplomat, whose embassy is displaying a Ukraine flag, told Reuters on condition of anonymity: “We and others got a letter calling on embassies and representative offices to refrain from using the outer walls of their buildings for 'politicised propaganda'”.

They added that the mission did not intend to comply with the notification.

08:06 AM

Pictured: Zelensky addresses opening ceremony of the Council of Europe in Iceland

08:03 AM

Dutch PM pledges 'international coalition' with Sunak to help Ukraine procure fighter jets

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has agreed with his UK counterpart Rishi Sunak to “work to build an international coalition” to help Ukraine procure F16 fighter jets and train fighter pilots, Downing Street has said.

Mr Rutte and Mr Sunak met at the Council of Europe Summit in Iceland on Tuesday, where they agreed to build the coalition “to provide Ukraine with combat air capabilities”, after Mr Sunak first proposed the coalition after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the UK on Monday.

In a statement, Downing Street said: "The Prime Minister updated Prime Minister Rutte on President Zelenskyy’s visit to the UK yesterday and discussions on how the international community can support Ukraine at this pivotal moment in the resistance to Putin’s invasion.

"The Prime Minister and Prime Minister Rutte agreed they would work to build international coalition to provide Ukraine with combat air capabilities, supporting with everything from training to procuring F16 jets."

On Tuesday evening, Mr Rutte wrote on Twitter: “The United Kingdom remains one of the Netherlands’ key partners. In Reykjavík I spoke to Prime Minister [Rishi Sunak] about the issues we’re working on together and, of course, about our ongoing joint support for Ukraine in the face of the terrible Russian aggression.”

08:01 AM

Good morning

Good morning and welcome to today's Ukraine liveblog.

We will be guiding you through all the latest updates from Ukraine.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.